This invention concerns articulated harvesters and, more particularly, means for conveying crop material between the bogies of such harvesters.
The broad concept of the articulated harvester has a number of potential advantages over rigid frame machines. These advantages, such as improved stability and maneuverability, may be realized in various configurations. For example, the optimum distribution of functional units between front and rear bogies may vary according to such considerations as size and capacity of the vehicle and crops to be handled. In any case, there is a need for efficient means of transferring crop material between the bogies of the harvester.
The present invention is applicable to handling a range of crop materials in a variety of articulated harvester configurations. However, for convenience, except as otherwise noted, the discusion here will be limited to a particularly appropriate exemplary application--that of transferring a grain and chaff mix or clean grain from a front bogie to a grain handling means such as a grain tank or cleaning shoe in the rear bogie of an articulated combine.
Means for handling clean grain in combines with conventional chassis (not articulated) are well known. Typically, a cleaning shoe is disposed below a grain tank; a cross auger collects clean grain from the sieves of the shoe and an elevator takes it up into the tank. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 020,863 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,326 Riedinger, also assigned to the assignee of the present invention and covering an articulated combine, discloses a similar general arrangement for handling cleaned grain except that the entire arrangement is embodied in the rear bogie of an articulated combine. Riedinger also discloses a slinger arrangement for transferring a mixture of grain and chaff from a separator in the front bogie to the cleaner in the rear bogie. But this is an arrangement of limited applicability which does not take advantage of the particular nature of the articulated configuration.